Adams and Vince strike hundreds

Hampshire opener Jimmy Adams and team-mate James Vince both plundered unbeaten centuries as Yorkshire took a pounding on the third day of the County Championship match at Scarborough.

It was a maiden century for talented teenager Vince, who is developing a batting style similar to that of Michael Vaughan, while it was the latest in a line of good scores by Adams against Yorkshire. He first made his mark at Headingley in 2006 by converting his maiden century into an unbeaten 168 as Hampshire successfully chased down a 404 target and he went on to add a further five half-centuries before his latest effort.

By close of play, Adams (162) and 19-year-old Vince (122) had put on an unbroken 215 for the fourth wicket to propel Hampshire to 367 for 3 and give them a first innings lead of 45.

Hampshire began the day on eight without loss and Yorkshire had Richard Pyrah in their side as replacement for Tim Bresnan, who had joined up with his England team-mates at Lord's.

Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Patterson shared the attack but did little to trouble either Adams or Michael Carberry and the other pace bowlers were generally ineffective. Yorkshire turned for a while to the spin of Adil Rashid and Adams helped himself to two fours in his first over to complete a half-century which contained 11 boundaries.

The century stand was reached in 31 overs but just before lunch it was Pyrah who split the pair by having Carberry caught at second slip by Anthony McGrath for 40.

Adams and Chris Benham continued to make life difficult for Yorkshire in the afternoon until Shahzad produced an almost unplayable delivery which hit the top of Benham's off-stump and Patterson then responded at the other end by forcing Neil McKenzie to chop into his stumps without scoring.

Any thoughts of a batting collapse quickly disappeared, however, as Vince joined Adams in a massive stand which saw Adams go to his century shortly before tea. He had faced 194 balls and struck 17 fours.

McGrath, who bowled a brief spell of off-spin before the interval, reverted to his normal medium pace and when Adams was 108 he got a bottom edge which wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy could not quite hold on to.

Vince's 50 came off 64 balls with eight fours and he registered his career-best score when he cruised past 75. Adams had a couple of run-out scares at the non-striker's end when returning to his crease and Vince survived a leaping attempt by Pyrah at backward point but otherwise the batsmen were in charge and Hampshire went calmly into the lead.

Consecutive boundaries by Vince off Pyrah hurried him to his maiden century off 128 balls with 15 fours and he celebrated by waving his bat ecstatically in response to the ovation from his team-mates and the 4,700 crowd.

Runs then continued to flow as the bowlers toiled without reward, with Hampshire holding the upper hand when the game goes into its final day.